


and i, i took the one less traveled by

by fallintolife



Series: (in)human Chronological Order [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fuck the Police, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 23:54:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30012921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallintolife/pseuds/fallintolife
Summary: Karen Page never meant to be an agent of SHIELD.She meant to be a cop.(Or, Karen Page, ex-cop, gets recruited to SHIELD by Melinda May)
Relationships: Karen Page & Melinda May
Series: (in)human Chronological Order [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2207829
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	and i, i took the one less traveled by

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear where I stand: defund the police, abolish ICE, black lives matter. If you disagree on any of these, there’s a nice little X at the top of your screen.

Karen Page never meant to be an agent of SHIELD.

She meant to be a cop.

The physical parts were easy thanks to eight years of running track. The memorization was tough but doable. The psych eval, though, she barely passed for reasons she wouldn’t understand until years later. She didn’t mesh with the culture, but she kept telling herself - with gritted teeth - that it was just hazing, that as soon as she got out on the street she’d be doing some real good.

Six months and three broken noses later, she had nothing to show for it except discharge papers and a seething ball of rage threatening to tear out of her chest.

You see, Karen Page had always known the value of keeping secrets, of keeping information separate. She knew how to handle clearance levels and comfort levels. She could hold her tongue, and hold it, and hold it. But no amount of respect for the law, for due process, for the judgment of her peers, could make Karen regret breaking a coworker’s nose when he grabbed her ass in front of the entire station. No amount of conviction in her own ability to do the right thing could make Karen fail to report the corruption happening right in front of her eyes.

And ultimately, no amount of good cops could outweigh the bad ones.

She stalks down the street with discharge papers in hand, her “don’t fuck with me” vibes strong enough to get looks even in New York. If it weren’t for the woman stepping directly in her path, Karen would never have noticed her.

“Miss Page?”

Karen stops, more out of shock than any real desire to interact. She is 100% certain she’s never seen this woman in her life.

“I’m Melinda, and I’d like to ask you a few questions.” She nods towards a nearby cafe. “If you’d like to come with me, I’m happy to buy you a coffee while we talk.”

Karen is still absolutely seething, but one sliver of good sense breaks through and has her nodding. The cafe is more window than wall, on a major thoroughfare. Being suddenly out of a job means Karen won’t have another opportunity for good coffee for a while.

Melinda leads the way, giving Karen her back with absolute confidence that Karen will follow, and Karen takes the time to assemble some information through her red haze.

Honestly, Karen couldn’t say how old Melinda is (other than probably older than Karen herself, which is just a hunch), what she does for a living, or even what kind of questions she wants to ask Karen. If she’s flirting it’s the strangest method Karen has ever seen in her entire life, and she’s not keeping close enough track of Karen for Karen to be in some kind of trouble. She’s not hungry the way reporters are, she doesn’t come off like an evagenlist, and she’s taking too long to sell it if she’s selling some kind of scam.

Melinda orders a black coffee with one sugar, and doesn’t raise a single eyebrow when Karen requests a coffee that ends up in the double-digits price range. They wait for their order in silence, then Melinda gestures for Karen to pick their seating.

Some of the incandescent rage has faded in favor of curiosity, but Mama Page didn’t raise a fool, so Karen picks a seat in a corner with a window to her immediate left, with her back to the bathrooms.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” Melinda says, after they’ve both taken their first sips of their coffee, “I want you to consider joining SHIELD.”

Karen frowns. She’s heard rumors of SHIELD - mostly in the form of Sergeants bitching about fighting with alphabet agencies over jurisdiction - but all she really _knows_ is that they’re more secretive than any other alphabet agency.

“Why me?” Karen knows her own worth, but she also knows she’s just a cop - an ex-cop, now - in a city full of them. She’s not a genius, not a legacy, not much of anything that should have caught the attention of a shadowy agency like SHIELD.

“Police training is useful,” Melinda says, sipping her coffee. “Police attitudes are not. You were discharged for moral reasons, which caught our eye.”

Karen snorts, a spike of rage going through her. “Moral reasons. That’s a nice way of saying I was too stupid to take a bribe.”

Melinda raises an eyebrow at her. “And you can’t think of why that might be useful for an agency that holds secrets on a global scale.”

Karen huffs out a dark little laugh, dropping her gaze down to the over-priced coffee in her hands. It isn’t that Melinda is wrong, exactly. _She_ wouldn’t want someone in her agency who would sell out international intelligence for a wink and $20. It’s that she’s still not convinced they have any reason to want her, Karen Page. There have to be hundreds of ex-soldiers with more specialized skills than “didn’t flunk out of the police academy”.

“If you want the full pitch, I’ll have to tap my colleague’s shoulder,” Melinda says. “I volunteered for this because I’ve been where you are.”

Karen’s head jerks up. “You were a cop?”

The other woman nods. “And my recruiter volunteered because he’d been a cop once, also discharged because he disagreed with what he was asked to do. I won’t say it’s common, but a few of us have been there.”

Karen turns that over in her head a few times. She picks at the label on her coffee absently, looking for the catch and failing. She’d already been willing to sign a contract with the police force, with everything that comes with it. Going to an agency that actively courts ex-cops like her— it’s better than becoming a rent-a-cop, which is the only other option that will pay her bills.

“So what do you do?” Karen asks. She won’t make that mistake twice.

“If you’re willing to sign some paperwork, I can show you,” Melinda says, rising.

Karen stands along with her, making sure to grab her half-forgotten discharge papers. “Deal.”

They exchange contact information, and Melinda gives her an address to show up at the next morning. 

It’s a start.

**Author's Note:**

> If I’m wrong on anything about the police, don’t correct me. I did ten minutes of casual research, and that’s all I want to know about cops.


End file.
